Motherhood Monday: Our Favorite Baby Gear at Nine Months

Okay, so Mia is not nine months anymore, but when I wrote this she was so I'm counting it!

I also shared my favorites for the newborn stage and at six months (look how little that squish was!) and still love and use everything that works for her at this stage (you know, so no more swaddles or Dock-a-Tot). I do have to note that I got a full refund on that Skip Hop Activity Center (from Skip Hop even though I bought on Amazon!) because some of the attachment toys won't stay attached. We still use it every day though, so I can't really complain.

At nine months, Mia started get into a sitting position by herself, and then crawling and then pulling up all within a few days, and is now wreaking havoc on our living room. She's also now eating mostly finger foods, but still will go for pouches and purees if we give them to her. Here are a few of our favorite things right now:

Oxo Tot Travel Spoon - This thing is so clutch for feeding Mia when we're out and about. Sure, it's just a spoon in a case, but it means you always have a clean spoon with you when you're feeding on the go, and don't have to waste plastic bags to put your spoons in. We bring this to grandparents' houses too, who don't have tiny spoons on hand.

Baby Buddy Secure-a-Toy - Mia is in the "accidentally on purpose" dropping things phase, and while I try to be chill about her toys landing on the floor, I'm decidedly not chill. These little straps can connect just about any toy to just about any surface, like her stroller, car seat, high chairs, shopping carts, etc.

Taggies Crinkle Toy - Mia has loved anything that makes noise since she was large enough to express an opinion, and she also likes the tag best on basically any toy we give her. I mentioned these loves to a coworker, and she suggested Taggies, which are toys covered in tags. We keep this in the car to keep her occupied, and she'll just go back and forth sticking all of the tags in her mouth.

Wegreeco Long Sleeve Bib - Talk about a Type A mom's dream! This bib is waterproof and basically completely covers her clothes so there's no mess at meal time (well, until she discovers rubbing food in her hair). I've tried a few of this type of bib, and this is the only one that fully covers her neck (some of the others are too big there), has velcro that always stays closed, and is actually waterproof.

Playpen - If you follow me on Instagram you've probably seen this playpen all over my stories. I was worried about babyproofing our condo because everything is decidedly not babyproof (why did we decide to buy all furniture with sharp corners and wrought iron legs?!) and decided a playpen was the solution. But not just any playpen, I wanted a really big one, something that could give Mia space to play and hopefully enough space that she would actually stay in the playpen. Well this little baby does the trick - it's roughly the dimensions of a queen mattress! It is from China and I was a little iffy about the materials, so I put this playmat in it (almost a perfect fit!). I also added a Queen mattress pad underneath to cushion it when Mia tips over. Long story short, while Mia is actually in there alone right now happily playing with her blocks set, she usually requires a mommy or a daddy to join her in the playpen. We are much happier to do so now that it's comfy - you can usually find me laying down in there with a pillow and blanket on a weekend morning!

If I Were A Bunny Book - I love everything that JellyCat makes (their stuffed animals so soft!) and we have a few of these "If I Were A" books, and the bunny one is definitely the best! It's full of textures, and Mia especially loves scratching the little bunny paws. She will turn through the pages of this book over and over.

Lovevery Block Set - Mia got this as a Christmas gift, and I had to include it here because it's already a love!! The set includes a bunch of blocks that fit into a little box of course, but the blocks can also turn the box into a car or a wagon, there is a shape sorter, and there are little people for building and playing house. Like other Lovevery products there are instructions on different ways to use the blocks at each stage, and we keep joking that we are currently at Stage Zero because Mia mostly just wants to eat them. I love how well designed these are though and can tell we will be playing with them for years to come.

Retractable Baby Gate - Our house is all stairs. Like really, if you stand in our foyer you can see four different staircases. I was initially freaked about this, until I realized I just needed to block Mia's access to the foyer and we'd be safe. That entryway is a little wonky though, really wide and not straight, so I wasn't sure how to block it effectively. With a retractable gate, we can easily pull it across the space, and then it retracts to take up basically no space if we need it to. Mia hasn't tested the strength of it yet, but I've rammed into it a few times and am impressed so far - we just bought another to put downstairs.

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